


Calm Before A Storm

by hinotoriii



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-21
Updated: 2014-05-21
Packaged: 2018-01-26 00:43:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1668497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hinotoriii/pseuds/hinotoriii
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the Fire Emblem's been stolen and more is learnt about the Avatar, Kara finds herself concerned about whether or not she may be more of a hinderance than a help in the task ahead of them. She finds herself needing comfort from the one person she can rely upon most in the world: her husband.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Calm Before A Storm

“So this is where you’re hiding.”

The words break Kara out of her deep thoughts, and she looks up in the direction of where her husband stands, leaning against the open doorway that leads into their room. The light from the window falls onto him, and Kara clearly notices the usual small, warm smile  which is present upon his face as he watches her.

“Everybody else is getting ready,” He continues to say, pushing himself up and stepping into the room towards the large window across on the opposite side, coming to a stop before it and looking down upon the grounds below. Kara knows that he’s watching the people that pass by, spotting friends they know well as they rush around in an attempt to gather everything that is needed for the next journey they would all be setting out on as the group they’d always been.

“Even Fredrick is searching for extra supplies right now. With a little bit of help offered from both Lucina and Morgan too, of course.”

Kara senses that Chrom’s words are aimed to help calm her troubled mind, yet they do very much the opposite. She feels a sensation of dread wash over her once again -- much like that which she had been feeling on and off ever since they had returned home -- and her hands, where they lay resting her lap clasp tightly, clutching at the material of her dress, knuckles turning white at the sheer force of her own grip.

Chrom turns away from the window, concern flooding across his features as soon as he notices Kara’s change in posture, and his entire body seems to shift as a frown begins to deepen upon his brow.

“Kara?” He asks, the sound of his footsteps moving lightly against the ground filling the air between them as he makes his way towards where she is sat. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

As soon as Chrom bridges some of the space between them he kneels before Kara, looking up at her with worried eyes. The way his cape pools at his feet is the last thing Kara spots before she’s clenching her eyes shut tightly, sucking in a deep breath as she turns away from Chrom’s concerned gaze.

“I can’t,” She says quietly, her words sounding like a cracked whisper to her own ears. She shakes her head once quickly before breathing in deeply again, swallowing down a lump that forms in the back of her throat. When she speaks up her words are only slightly louder. “I can’t do it.”

Kara pauses, allowing herself a moment to catch her own breath as she fights the fear from the words she knows she needs to say out loud. Chrom’s hands move to rest upon her knees; a presence that would have been welcomed and reassuring had the circumstances for her growing panic been any different.

“I can’t come with you this time.”

The words come out around a gasp of air, and Kara feels the way that Chrom’s hands tighten ever so slightly, senses the way that his eyes widen in shock as his gaze continues to focus intently on her. There’s a beat of silence, one that stretches one far longer in Kara’s mind than in does in reality, before Chrom eventually responds.

“Why not?” Chrom asks. To Kara’s ears the words are as soft and caring as they always are, an edge of both his ever growing worry and confusion laced within them. Still, Kara cannot find the courage withinthat would allow herself to open her eyes and look at him, and instead decides to give yet another shake of her head.

“I just – I can’t,” She repeats, pausing for a moment to suck in another deep breath. “I don’t want to risk being a burden to you.”

“Kara,” Chrom says, his voice strained. A hand moves from her knee to underneath her chin, carefully tilting it upwards so that Kara’s gaze met his own as she finally opened her eyes to look at him. “When have you ever been a burden to me? And what makes you think that you’ll be one now?”

Kara turns her head slightly at his questions, looking away from Chrom so quickly that his fingertips brushed against her skin quickly before they’re suddenly touching nothing. She did not notice the flash of hurt that crossed over his features at the action, nor how his concerned expression grew, her own thoughts instead continuing to consume and grow within her mind.

“This is different,” Kara replies, focusing her attention intently on a spot on the wall as her hands move, clasping instead at the sheets that lay upon the bed she was sitting on. “Things are different. We know more now than we have before. About many things.”

“Is this about what happened with the Emblem?” Chrom asks, letting his hand rest upon his wife’s knee once more. “About Validar and about what happened?”

Kara’s expression hardens at the mere memory of what had happened, frowning deeply. The way in which her body stiffens at his questions gives Chrom answer enough to understand that his thoughts are correct.

“You know that I don’t blame you for that. You _must_ know,” Chrom pushes, desperate in wanting Kara to see things in the way which he did. “You weren’t in control of your own actions – ”

“Exactly,” Kara suddenly interrupts, turning sharply to face her husband, a harsh spark lighting up behind her eyes. “I had _no control_ over what I was doing at all. I basically had no choice but to give them exactly what it was that they wanted, as if I was nothing more than a mere puppet to them! Who’s to say that with the power Validar has over me that such a thing won’t happen again? That they won’t get into my head again and make me do something else? Something far worse, or which I can never take back even if I wanted to?”

“Love, they _won’t_. They won’t even get the chance – ” Chrom begins to say, attempting to calm his wife. Yet Kara moves herself out of reach of his touch.

“You don’t know that,” She sighs out in frustration, pushing herself up off the bed and standing on her feet, moving away from Chrom before beginning to pace back and forth across the room. “You don’t know what it is that they’re capable of. _I_ don’t know what they’re capable of. And to be completely honest with you, I really don’t want to find out, either.”

Chrom watches as Kara wraps her arms tightly around her body, holding on as if she were willing herself not to fall apart at the very seams of her existence. From where it sits within his chest Chrom can feel his heart aching for her, wanting nothing more than to find some way in which he could take away all the pain and fear that Kara currently feels suffocated in. Slowly he rises from where he had been kneeling upon the ground, cautiously beginning to walk towards his wife, keeping his movements slow and tentative, almost as if he were faced with a startled animal.

“We have a plan, Kara,” Chrom says, his words once again aimed to be calm and soothing. “A plan that you helped to put together. We can’t pull it off without you with us. _I_ can’t pull it off without you. And I swear to you, by my own life no harm will ever come to you. I won’t let it, no matter how hard anyone may try.”

“But don’t you see?” Kara responds. “It’s not me that I’m concerned about. It’s you, and what they could make me do to you!”

“Kara – ”

“You haven’t seen what I’ve seen,” Kara interrupts, her entire body beginning to shake. “You haven’t seen the dreams that I’ve been having ever since I can remember, nor do you know how real it is that they can feel. It’s like their not dreams but _memories_ , Chrom, and after what Lucina has told us…”

Kara’s words drift off, and she’s fighting the tears that have started to well up in her eyes. Chrom notices them and understanding why they’re there and more about what it is that has Kara so terrified, he closes the remaining distance between them and wraps his arms around her, pulling Kara close to his chest and holding her protectively.

“Listen to me,” He says, lips pressed against the shell of Kara’s ear, spoken in softness. “ _Nothing_ is going to happen to me, or to us. Whatever future it is that our daughter has come from or that she’s seen happen we are now fighting to change, to make better for all of us. And I know, more than anything, that you are fighting for that brighter future just as much as the rest of us are, and that you would never do anything that would cause me, our children, our friends or our _family_ harm.”

Kara sniffs at Chrom’s words, finally letting her tears fall down her pale cheeks. Her body continues to tremble in his arms, and with one hand she reaches to grip at her husbands cape tightly, soaking up every piece of comfort from him that she can.

“How?” She asks, her voice coming out hoarse. “How can you be so certain of that?”

“That’s easy,” Chrom says, holding her tighter against himself and resting his chin on top of her head. “It’s because I know you. And I know you would never allow yourself to harm that which you care about. You’d do just about anything you could before allowing such a thing to happen.” 

"Chrom -"

"I see it everyday," Chrom continues, ignoring his wife's interruption. "Everyday you’re on that battlefield. You go out there and you defend, you protect. You fight tooth and nail when you have to, and I can't even begin to count the amount of times in which you've ended up saving my life alone, let alone all the other people out there too. Helping people comes natural to you, and this goal which we're met with now, this new piece of information we’ve discovered about your past and what it is you could have been? It doesn't change any of that. _You_ decide who you are and what it is that you want for yourself, and I believe that you already did that years ago." 

A brief quietness falls between them, the only sounds coming from Kara's crying. She soon sniffs again, slowly moving to rest the side of her head against Chrom's chest as she lets out a tiny half-hearted laugh, reaching up to brush away her own falling tears. 

"I wish I had your faith and optimism sometimes," She says around her saddened laugh. 'Especially right now when I feel I ... well. I don't know what I feel, honestly. Other than confused."

Kara pauses once more, Chrom leaning down and pressing a light kiss to the crown of her head in a hopes to sooth the woman in some way. He senses as she breathes in, the way her lungs raise deep within her chest, and slowly Kara pulls away, just enough so she can look up at her husband with an expression reminiscent to that of a young child looking for guidance.

"Do you really believe that our plan will work? That it'll manage to fool them?" Kara asks tentatively. Chrom watches her, squeezing her ever so slightly in reassurance and never taking his eyes away from her for one moment.

"I have faith it will. A plan of yours has never failed us yet, my love." 

Kara hesitates for a second, before finally allowing herself to give in and collapse into her husbands chest again, burying her face against him as let’s his arms wrap around her tightly, holding her in place. She speaks, yet her words are muffled and difficult to get out from her position against him, and Kara suspects there's a strong possibility that Chrom doesn't hear what it is that she says.

"There's always a first time for anything."


End file.
